Fables of La Fontaine, Volume 1Derby & Jackson, 1860 - Fables, French |
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Common terms and phrases
admired Æsop amiable ancients animals apologue bear beasts beauty beneath bird Boileau character charms Château-Thierry creature cried death delight doth eagle ESCOBAR Esop fables fabulist fate fear Fontaine Fontaine's Fouquet France French French language friends frog gave genius give grace hare head heart Hitopadesa horse imitation John Rabbit Jove Jupiter king La Fontaine labor language lark laugh lion live Louis Racine Louis XIV Madame Madame de Montespan master Maucroix mind Molière moral muse nature neighbor never nought o'er once Phædrus Plautus pleasure poet poetry prose Quintilian Rabelais Racine replied Rheims Sablière seems sheep Sir Raven sire stag story style tale talent taste thee thing thought tion took translation turn Twas verse Voiture wife wise wolf words writings wrote
Popular passages
Page xxxii - J'aime le jeu, l'amour, les livres, la musique, La ville et la campagne, enfin tout ; il n'est rien Qui ne me soit souverain bien, Jusqu'au sombre plaisir d'un cœur mélancolique.
Page 56 - Je m'avoue, il est vrai, s'il faut parler ainsi, Papillon du Parnasse, et semblable aux abeilles A qui le bon Platon compare nos merveilles. Je suis chose légère, et vole à tout sujet; Je vais de fleur en fleur, et d'objet en objet; A beaucoup de plaisirs je mêle un peu de gloire.
Page 71 - Quelques imitateurs, sot bétail, je l'avoue, Suivent en vrais moutons le pasteur de Mantoue. J'en use d'autre sorte; et, me laissant guider, Souvent à marcher seul j'ose me hasarder. On me verra toujours pratiquer cet usage. Mon imitation n'est point un esclavage : Je ne prends que l'idée, et les tours, et les lois Que nos maîtres suivaient eux-mêmes autrefois. Si d'ailleurs quelque endroit plein chez eux d'excellence...
Page 13 - tis not enough to pain me; Perhaps the collar's mark by which they chain me." "Chain! chain you! What! run you not, then. Just where you please and when ? " "Not always, sir; but what of that?
Page 50 - THE COUNCIL HELD BY THE RATS. OLD Rodilard, a certain cat, Such havoc of the rats had made, 'Twas difficult to find a rat With nature's debt unpaid. The few that did remain, To leave their holes afraid, From usual food abstain, Not eating half their fill. And wonder no one will That one who made of rats his revel, With rats pass'd not for cat, but devil. Now, on a day, this dread rat-eater, Who had a wife, went out to meet her ; And while he held his caterwauling, The unkill'd rats, their chapter...
Page xxxviii - Quant à son temps, bien sut le dispenser : Deux parts en fit, dont il soulait passer L'une à dormir, et l'autre à ne rien faire.
Page 54 - Plaute n'est plus qu'un plat bouffon, Et jamais il ne fit si bon Se trouver à la comédie ; Car ne pense pas qu'on y rie De maint trait jadis admiré, Et bon IN ILLO TEMPORE : Nous avons changé de méthode ; Jodelet n'est plus à la mode, Et maintenant il ne faut pas . Quitter la nature d'un pas.
Page 12 - Wolf, in famished plight, Would fain have made a ration Upon his fat relation ; But then he first must fight ; And well the dog seemed able To save from wolfish table His carcass snug and tight. So, then, in civil conversation The wolf expressed his admiration Of Tray's fine case.
Page 50 - To leave their holes afraid, From usual food abstain, Not eating half their fill. And wonder no one will, That one who made on rats his revel, With rats passed not for cat, but devil. Now, on a day, this dread rat-eater, Who had a wife, went out to meet her ; And while he held his caterwauling, The unkilled rats, their chapter calling, Discussed the point, in grave debate, How they might shun impending fate. Their dean, a prudent rat, Thought best, and better soon than late. To bell the fatal cat...